Mixed-Integer Programming Approaches to Generalized Submodular Optimization and its Applications

Submodularity is an important concept in integer and combinatorial optimization. A classical submodular set function models the utility of selecting homogenous items from a single ground set, and such selections can be represented by binary variables. In practice, many problem contexts involve choosing heterogenous items from more than one ground set or selecting multiple copies … Read more

On Constrained Mixed-Integer DR-Submodular Minimization

DR-submodular functions encompass a broad class of functions which are generally non-convex and non-concave. We study the problem of minimizing any DR-submodular function, with continuous and general integer variables, under box constraints and possibly additional monotonicity constraints. We propose valid linear inequalities for the epigraph of any DR-submodular function under the constraints. We further provide … Read more

On the convex hull of convex quadratic optimization problems with indicators

We consider the convex quadratic optimization problem with indicator variables and arbitrary constraints on the indicators. We show that a convex hull description of the associated mixed-integer set in an extended space with a quadratic number of additional variables consists of a single positive semidefinite constraint (explicitly stated) and linear constraints. In particular, convexification of … Read more

A Graph-based Decomposition Method for Convex Quadratic Optimization with Indicators

In this paper, we consider convex quadratic optimization problems with indicator variables when the matrix Q defining the quadratic term in the objective is sparse. We use a graphical representation of the support of Q, and show that if this graph is a path, then we can solve the associated problem in polynomial time. This … Read more

Strong valid inequalities for a class of concave submodular minimization problems under cardinality constraints

We study the polyhedral convex hull structure of a mixed-integer set which arises in a class of cardinality-constrained concave submodular minimization problems. This class of problems has an objective function in the form of $f(a^\top x)$, where $f$ is a univariate concave function, $a$ is a non-negative vector, and $x$ is a binary vector of … Read more

Chance-Constrained Optimization under Limited Distributional Information: A Review of Reformulations Based on Sampling and Distributional Robustness

Chance-constrained programming (CCP) is one of the most difficult classes of optimization problems that has attracted the attention of researchers since the 1950s. In this survey, we focus on cases when only a limited information on the distribution is available, such as a sample from the distribution, or the moments of the distribution. We first … Read more

Conic Mixed-Binary Sets: Convex Hull Characterizations and Applications

We consider a general conic mixed-binary set where each homogeneous conic constraint involves an affine function of independent continuous variables and an epigraph variable associated with a nonnegative function, $f_j$, of common binary variables. Sets of this form naturally arise as substructures in a number of applications including mean-risk optimization, chance-constrained problems, portfolio optimization, lot-sizing … Read more

An Exact Cutting Plane Method for hBcsubmodular Function Maximization

A natural and important generalization of submodularity—$k$-submodularity—applies to set functions with $k$ arguments and appears in a broad range of applications, such as infrastructure design, machine learning, and healthcare. In this paper, we study maximization problems with $k$-submodular objective functions. We propose valid linear inequalities, namely the $k$-submodular inequalities, for the hypograph of any $k$-submodular … Read more

Strong Formulations for Distributionally Robust Chance-Constrained Programs with Left-Hand Side Uncertainty under Wasserstein Ambiguity

Distributionally robust chance-constrained programs (DR-CCP) over Wasserstein ambiguity sets exhibit attractive out-of-sample performance and admit big-$M$-based mixed-integer programming (MIP) reformulations with conic constraints. However, the resulting formulations often suffer from scalability issues as sample size increases. To address this shortcoming, we derive stronger formulations that scale well with respect to the sample size. Our focus … Read more

Ideal formulations for constrained convex optimization problems with indicator variables.

Motivated by modern regression applications, in this paper, we study the convexification of a class of convex optimization problems with indicator variables and combinatorial constraints on the indicators. Unlike most of the previous work on convexification of sparse regression problems, we simultaneously consider the nonlinear non-separable objective, indicator variables, and combinatorial constraints. Specifically, we give … Read more